Sweden will be offering a “tailor-made” course to the government, members of academia, and the private sector to “enhance Qatar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through a strategic partnership” between Qatar and Sweden, Swedish ambassador Ewa Polano has said.
Speaking at the opening of the 3rd Entrepreneurship in Economic Development Forum yesterday, the ambassador announced that the proposal will be submitted on March 14 during a visit by a delegation from Lund University.
The arrival of the delegation, according to Polano, serves as a follow-up to the visit of Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research Helene Hellmark Knutsson, who was in Qatar last week.
“What we already have on the table is a proposal for a strategic partnership between Qatar and Sweden. A delegation from Lund University will offer a concrete, tailor-made proposal for Qatar to have a national innovation system in order to have a ‘triple helix approach’ between the government, universities, and the private sector,” Polano told Gulf Times on the sidelines of the forum.
Referring to the Qatar National Vision 2030 and the government’s diversification efforts, Polano said the “Swedish success story” will be “a great role model in Qatar’s paradigm shift from the oil and gas economy towards a knowledge-based society.” “We can offer our knowledge – 100 years’ worth of entrepreneurship. We are a small nation but we are successful in entrepreneurship and we have Swedish companies that are active all over the world.
“What we are offering is an education for national administrators, people from the government, universities, and the private sector. This is very much done in incubators and on-site visits. The Swedish success story is something that could be interesting for Qatar,” the ambassador said.
Polano said the Swedish embassy has already submitted letters explaining the proposal to officials at Qatar University, Qatar Foundation, the Qatar Central Bank, and Qatar Development Bank, among others.
The ambassador said taxation, strong government support, and spending 3.3% of its gross national product (GNP) on research and development were “very instrumental” in the development of Sweden’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector.
“The Swedish private sector has received strong government support through taxes and this has been very instrumental in the development of our SMEs. This concept was highlighted before Qatari officials during the visit of Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research Helene Hellmark Knutsson last week,” she said.